England may have lost their past two one-day series, both against New Zealand, but I believe they have a serious opportunity to upset the higher-ranked South Africans in the next fortnight.
I know from my time as a coach how difficult it is to play one-dayers after the Tests, especially if, as with South Africa, you have won the series. That is your final, if you like, and the build-up and tension can be hard to recreate. Winning a historic Test series can mentally drain you: England have not been drained in the same way.
It will help Kevin Pietersen that one-day captaincy is nowhere near as complicated as the Test job. There is a decision to be made about when to take your power-plays and there is the occasional question about which men to keep in the circle, but otherwise the job runs itself far more easily than in five-day cricket.
I also think South Africa have got two huge holes to fill in their bowling attack. Shaun Pollock and Charl Langeveldt are no longer there — and they had this knack of landing the ball on a length in the one-day game. The other guys in the side have what I would term strange actions — blokes such as Morne Morkel, Andre Nel and Makhaya Ntini.
I think they will struggle to match Pollock and Langeveldt for accuracy. Dale Steyn has a good action, but he’s still young and you do not want to force him to be an on-the-spot bowler. You want him to maintain his pace, because that’s what gets wickets, which is the best way to win a one-day game — especially if you take them in the middle of the innings.
It seems England will be going in with a new-look top three of Ian Bell, Matt Prior and Owais Shah, which I am pleased to see — with one or two small reservations. Bell must bat at the top of the order, where England can exploit his ability to manoeuvre the ball into gaps as well as his under-rated boundary-hitting skills, but it is crucial he is given a specific role of batting for 45 overs and letting others perform around him.
Prior could be a good foil, but he has to be given the chance to grow into the role. People often burden new players unfairly by comparing them with all-time greats at the peak of their powers. They forget, for example, that Shane Warne was spanked all over the SCG by India on his Test debut or that Rod Marsh was known as Irongloves at the start of his career.
Look at the opposition: Mark Boucher was atrocious as a wicketkeeper when he first came on the scene. All players are going to have a bad run, but England must give Prior a chance — perhaps we should have given him more of a go after that one-day series in India in 2006.
As for Owais, knowing him as I do, I think that number six might be better for him, because your targets are more defined there than at number three. Maybe this chance will be the making of him, but he can try to be too smart sometimes and at number three the game is yet to take shape. Like Bell, he’s a classy, wristy player with the ability to manipulate the ball, but I just think mentally he’s better suited to playing lower down the order.
I wonder about some of the bowling. Do England want to develop an attack capable of succeeding in all conditions or one that will prosper only when the ball swings? We need tall, fast bowlers: Steve Harmison-type bowlers, almost. I know people have their doubts about Sajid Mahmood, but with his athleticism, his pace, his variations and his excellent cricket brain, he should be the kind of guy they’re working with.
He can be error-prone, but I honestly believe that’s because he’s thinking too hard and getting ahead of himself. But I would rather that than the other way around. He can hit out down the order, too. Chris Tremlett is another one with great potential and I remember how our batters would sometimes prefer to face Harmison in the nets than him. But he needs to prove he has the mental aggression to succeed at the highest level.
I just hope this series doesn’t become a case of win the toss, win the match, as it was in 2004 during the triangular with New Zealand and West Indies, as well as in some other series.
Those kinds of conditions do not help England’s development. It was worrying to see that the guys who performed best in Saturday’s Friends Provident Trophy final were all South African or Zimbabwean. Something’s not right with the system. If England beat South Africa it will be in spite of that system, not because of it. —